27 September 2007
A new website is taking on leading record companies by offering unsigned bands the chance of fame and fortune.
The amazingtunes.com site is being hailed as "iTunes unsigned". It features thousands of tracks by as-yet-unknown acts. The difference with amazingtunes.com is users can listen to songs in their entirety for free, unlike rival sites. However, to download a song customers are still required to pay. Seventy percent of all download revenues go to the artists themselves, cutting out the record company profits.
The site's founder, Paul Campbell, hopes it will revolutionise the music industry. It combines the downloading aspect of iTunes with the social networking of sites such as MySpace.
Campbell explains one of the purposes of this website is to remove the record companies from the music industry. Campbell explains that he feels record companies are undercutting artists by taking massive portions of their profits and also over charging the consumer. Using amazingtunes.com you know the money you are paying is going straight into the artist's pocket, there are no middle men.
The site allows artists to post profiles alongside their music, while fans can write reviews and create their own radio shows. Campbell said:
The likes of MySpace might help some acts but for every Lily Allen there are thousands of other artists who are just as talented but don't get signed.
The website features artists from all over the world. It has its own chart, based on the number of downloads combined with how many hits an artist's page is getting.
Early stars of the site include Crusoe George, a 16-year-old from Brighton who records acid jazz tracks in his bedroom. Another popular artist is April Start, a 21-year-old waitress from New York who is being likened to Shania Twain.
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